The concept of client/server architecture was once employed as a response to the high cost of computer microprocessors and memory that defined an earlier age of computing. In that setting, client/server architecture allowed multiple users of minimally configured computer terminals to share and utilize a more powerful mainframe computer without the cost of equipping each terminal with a more expensive computer system. In this fashion, an organization could invest in a small number of richly configured computer servers which were then made available to a potentially much larger number of minimally configured terminals that could send computing requests to the servers over a network. Such requests might include, for example, a data retrieval function that searches a database for requested subject matter. The server would receive the request, process it to format a database query, execute the query, receive the results, format the results, and send them across the network to the requesting terminal.
As processing and memory costs dropped dramatically, minimally configured terminals were gradually replaced by powerful desktop computers that were capable of performing more advanced functions on their own, and the original need for client/server computing largely diminished. The proliferation of the Internet, however, brought client/server computing back in a very large way in the case of web services. Web services allow developers to create applications and application functions that can be utilized by Internet clients in order to receive benefit from more common computing needs while reducing wasted effort by increasing reuse. With web services, any type of computing device that has an ability to access the Internet can connect to a “cloud” and run applications that would otherwise be beyond the ability of the device to process efficiently, if at all. With applications and connecting clients numbering in the tens of millions, however, the popular utilization of web services can exceed the ability of server computers to provide them. This can significantly impair operation of the network, cloud and/or web services themselves, including impaired data flow, increased connection traffic, the formation of bottlenecks and other inefficiencies. Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods and means for managing server resources so that web services may be provided more efficiently.